I have been waiting patiently for the ppc6600 to come out. I have been debating over the 6600 and the 650 for over half a year now. I have even bought the 650 and return it within the 14 days in fear that the 6600 will be better.

Finnally tonite I have definitly made up my mind. I am sticking to the 650.
This cnet's video review for the 6601 did it for me. Its not what they said they influenced me, but how HUGE!!!! the 6601 looks in the reviewers hands. OMG!! I knew that the the 6601 was bigger than the 650 but that thing is a GIANT!!

I cannot have a everyday cell phone like that. My arm will get tired of holding the device.

I don't agree at all. They must of searched to find the person with the smallest hands in the company to review it. Fact is the size of the 6600 is only a few mm wider. 6600 is actually short and thiner.

I agree with Farz. This is a great device in the PROPER hands. Remember, its a PDA first and a phone second. SPCS has problems with their version VZW does not at this point. Size is a moot point. Its not that big and it works out of the box on VZW. The T650 is not ready for prime time and will not be ready for likely a year yet. At least for the power users that demand that a device go to the bleeding edge and back without major problems.

Each to his own however, if the T650 floats your boat, go for it. There's room for both camps here.

I don't agree at all. They must of searched to find the person with the smallest hands in the company to review it. Fact is the size of the 6600 is only a few mm wider. 6600 is actually short and thiner.

No, the 6600 is not shorter. It also has a much greater volume. It's like you're holding a 2x4 to the side of your face when you're trying to talk.

VZW has numerous problems with their version, despite what others might claim. Total shutdown for hours at a time with no explaination. Not good.

The two devices really are different, as robber pointed out. The 650 is a much better phone with some nice PDA functionality while the 6600 is a nice PDA with some limited phone functionality.

Now, your reply begs the question of personal experience and sources for the "problems" with the VZW device.

I'll admit that I'm still early in my experiences with VZW, but to date, I haven't yet had any major problem with this device I couldn't solve on my own or with the help of my colleagues here at Treocentral or PDAPHONEHOME. I have yet to even call VZW CS for any reason.

I don't want to sound like I'm defending the device, but it HAS worked as advertised or me to date. I have pushed it to the bleeding edge and come back again with only minor software glitches. I have not experienced the "Beep of Death" with the VZW device and their WIreles Sync has worked as it should once I understood how to set it up.

As for size, I'll gladly trade a few MM an ounces for the capabilities I can carry in my pocket with the device.

I'm not trying to start a battle of words here, just trying to set the record straight.

Darnnit, guess im back on the waiting boat again till the 6600 comes out.
Why cant they just have one of these devices in the stores so I can experiment with it.
I looked all over the city at least once a week for any updates from sprint, and verizon. I know its out for cingular already but cingular isnt around here.
I read everypost from duck and hobbes on every forum. Including "pcthoughts, pdaphonehome, spritnusers, and howardforums".
I have been so tempted to buy the 6601 just to try it out from telesales and return it, because I want the camera version, but resisted. What I think would be perfect is if palmone really did combine their efforts with dell and make a treo with windows 200x.

A buddy of mine just got this phone from his VZW corporate sales rep last week. He was complaining yesterday that the call volume is extremely low, even at the highest setting. Did you experience this problem as Ü

The VZW version does have very low volume, while the Sprint version has a lot more volume but sounds awful when not using a wired or BT earpiece.

The Sprint version has the "beep of death" while the VZW version has the major ROM problem where the phone completely shuts down for hours at a time. Neither one affects every phone though. There are people who've gone through multiple replacements and had problems on every one, while some have never had any problems with their original unit. There doesn't seem to be much rhyme or reason to it.

I got one from Telesales, used it for a while, couldn't stand all of the problems and returned it to a Sprint store. I couldn't believe how slow the thing was.

A buddy of mine just got this phone from his VZW corporate sales rep last week. He was complaining yesterday that the call volume is extremely low, even at the highest setting. Did you experience this problem as Ü

JSJSJS:

Perhaps I have been lucky (T300 & T600 that worked well from SPCS, 6601 - with beep of death from SPCS and XV6600 from VZW w/o problems), mine is fine as far as volume goes. I was concerned about this today so I was in a noisy restaurant environment and tried the phone-against-the-ear method to see if it was O.K. I had to turn the volume up to the next to highest setting while "IN CALL" but I could hear fine. I had to turn the system volume down when using MS VC to dial as it was painfully loud.

Now, perhaps this is on a unit-by-unit basis. Maybe your buddy should take it back to VZW and ask them to try a different unit.

I use a wired headset most of the time (Jabra Ear Boom - weird SciFi looking gray/silver over the ear thingy - technical description) and have to turn the call volume DOWN to the lowest setting to preserve what little hearing I have left. Not that this is a solution. I did notice in the registry, there are phone volume keys, but I have get to grow the gonadal mass necessary to starting hacking away at these keys. Someone will do this soon I predict and the issue will be put to bed.

Meantime, why not ask VZW for a new handset to see if there is any difference to your friend? I feel that volume levels are very subjective and each of us has to evaluate them for ourselves.

One other thing: With my headset plugged in, I notice that the VZW handset DOES NOT ring through the earpiece as did my SPCS unit. Thank you VZW. I nearly had a heart attack the first time this happened with the SPCS unit. It was very loud.

The VZW version does have very low volume, while the Sprint version has a lot more volume but sounds awful when not using a wired or BT earpiece.

The Sprint version has the "beep of death" while the VZW version has the major ROM problem where the phone completely shuts down for hours at a time. Neither one affects every phone though. There are people who've gone through multiple replacements and had problems on every one, while some have never had any problems with their original unit. There doesn't seem to be much rhyme or reason to it.

I got one from Telesales, used it for a while, couldn't stand all of the problems and returned it to a Sprint store. I couldn't believe how slow the thing was.

Noob:

I agree with the SPCS issues. I sure hope I don't see the VZW ROM issue, that would **** me off terribly.

What do you mean by "slow"? Were you running SPB Pocket Plus on the device? That has some impact (actually a moderate impact) on processor overhead and can slow the unit down a noticeable amount. However, if you set PP up to close the apps when you tap the "X" icon, it does help preserve speed as you don't have a bunch of apps residing in the memory and taking slices of processor cycle all the time. Mine runs at an acceptable pace with PP up and running.

I agree with the SPCS issues. I sure hope I don't see the VZW ROM issue, that would **** me off terribly.

What do you mean by "slow"? Were you running SPB Pocket Plus on the device? That has some impact (actually a moderate impact) on processor overhead and can slow the unit down a noticeable amount. However, if you set PP up to close the apps when you tap the "X" icon, it does help preserve speed as you don't have a bunch of apps residing in the memory and taking slices of processor cycle all the time. Mine runs at an acceptable pace with PP up and running.

Thanks,

Bob Duckworth

No 3rd party applications at all. The thing was just so slow to change screens, accept changes, launch programs, etc. I always made sure that there were no apps running in the background, but that didn't make much of a difference. Even simple things like selecting the ringer or the volume had a lot of lag. Given the processor speed and amount of standard RAM, I was suprised how incredibly slow it was compared to the 650. Windows much just run a ton slower than Palm OS.

No 3rd party applications at all. The thing was just so slow to change screens, accept changes, launch programs, etc. I always made sure that there were no apps running in the background, but that didn't make much of a difference. Even simple things like selecting the ringer or the volume had a lot of lag. Given the processor speed and amount of standard RAM, I was suprised how incredibly slow it was compared to the 650. Windows much just run a ton slower than Palm OS.

Wow! I thought it was pretty quick with no foreground apps running. True, Windoze does add a lot of processor overhead compared to Palm OS but I din't notice that it was slow at all. I figured that was why they went to a 400 MHz processor speed to manage the overhead bloat.

I've had the 600, held and played with the 650 and now own the VZW XV6600. For my purposes (please keep in mind this is JUST MY OPINION), the Treo(s) feel like a toy when compared to the 6600. The following are my reasons for this opinion:

-I carry my device on my belt, in a case. The device almost never comes out of the case. With this in mind, when considering the bulk added by the case, the size difference between the two devices is almost a non factor. Neither feels like a brick or 2x4. They just feel like a phone, in a case.

-Screen size. The small square screen of the Treo(s) simply cannot serve for a day of GoToMyPC/Remote Desktop use, some word processing, spreadsheet use, web browsing and email reading/writing.

-One handed use. As has been stated here before, I believe the one handed operation of the 6600 is superior to the Treo. Admittedly, the learning curve of the PPC OS is incredibly steep when compared to Palm. But, once you know what you're doing, I think the PPC's power dominates that of the Treo.

There are other reasons, but these 3 set the 6600 head and shoulders above the Treo. Again, FOR MY NEEDS (please don't flame me) the 6600 is the best convergent device released to date.

PS: I've had none of the issues reported earlier in this thread regarding speed / volume. Remember, the speed issue is totally dependant on carrier, carrier specific software, running drivers, and even the area your service is in (in other words, your specific results may vary greatly from others). As for sound, this is just to subjective of an issue to take what you read here as fact.

If you're in an area that has low signal or a signal that fluctuates, the phone will search quite a bit. Some have noted that, on the 6600 specifically, this has a tendency to slow the unit down. There are ways to configure the device to prevent this, but it does take some research and a willingness to experiment.

Well I'm in a pretty good signal area. The other reviews that I've seen have all said that same basic thing. I know that they had to keep the processor slow because the battery life is already pretty poor on the 6601.

I could have dealt with the slow processor speed if the phone side wasn't so bad. Weak phone plus weak PDA does not equal a nice phone/PDA combo for me, especially when you throw a serious phone bug and BT bug into the mix.

Well I'm in a pretty good signal area. The other reviews that I've seen have all said that same basic thing. I know that they had to keep the processor slow because the battery life is already pretty poor on the 6601.

I could have dealt with the slow processor speed if the phone side wasn't so bad. Weak phone plus weak PDA does not equal a nice phone/PDA combo for me, especially when you throw a serious phone bug and BT bug into the mix.

You had 3rd part software installed that was screwing it up. This is one of the fastest handhelds I have ever seen.

Uh, noob, you said you used it for a hour. Maybe you didn't get in a good spot, or maybe you didn't RTFM. Possibly you got a defective unit, too. Everyone over on the TREO 650 side gets all bent out of shape if you post negative stuff and you don't have what they call adequate experience. I won't get bent out of shape, but is it possible you didn't give this a fair shake either? Just wondering..... To be completely honest, I haven't used a PPC 6601 either, and I'm still waiting to test out the GSM TREO 650.